20180728 Śrī Krishna Caitanya Book

Nama Om…

So these were some poetic rendition of some metaphors of what Lord Caitanya feels when He sees the Bhagirathi. Since it is late, I will just read a couple of verses and then we will have questions and answers. 

So this is explaining the kinds of feelings that Lord Caitanya had. He was fatigued walking by the Ganges and there was perspiration on His forehead and then when He saw the Bhagirathi, everything the Lord does is filled with rasa and emotion, so here the poet is comparing Lord Caitanya’s experience of the cool breeze over the Bhagirathi with a pond that is filled with lotuses and has intoxicated sweet sounding swans moving in the water. In this way as the female swans expressed affection for their mates and shook their wings, they gave joy to the Lord. He is experiencing the cool breeze of the Bhagirathi but the comparison is to a pond is that of a pond with lotuses and swans. So in this way the Lord is experiencing unlimited spiritual ecstasies. 

As a pond has waves created by the swans, so Lord Caitanya was seeing the beautiful bank of the river Ganges. And Gauranga was tasting unlimited spiritual bliss and His form was so blissful with limitless spiritual bliss and Gaurangadev was tasting unlimited spiritual happiness. Because He was seeing an attractive object. As a materialistic person derives happiness, similarly the Lord is filled with bliss.

The unlimitedly pure, moist, cooling air took all the fatigue from Mahaprabhu away. And the fatigue of walking a long distance was taken away by this gentle blowing. So this poetry is very difficult to translate.  I don’t really know if there is any English that can do justice. These similes and metaphors are of the highest nature and words used are very difficult to understand. So we will just do a few. Any questions?

Question: Donations – what is the difference grihasthas are supposed to give -donations are supposed to give – difference between mundane charity and spiritual charity?

Guru maharaj: The mundane charity will give you karma while the charity given to the Lord or His devotees will give spiritual bliss. This destroys one’s bad karmas and purifies our work, that all we have done is done for the pleasure of Krishna. 

Question: How to avoid faultfinding?

Guru maharaj: See the good qualities in others.

Question: How can we practically understand that opulence like beauty, fame and wealth come from Krishna and how do we not become proud even though we possess opulences in minute quantities?

Guru maharaj: The first thing is what does one do for which they can take credit?  Their beauty, their money, their education – all these things are considered good karma. So Krishna says He awards people with their karmas, so He gives us knowledge, forgetfulness and remembrance, so if we forget during the final exam, we won’t get the grade. If we don’t have knowledge to begin with we cannot get good grades, we cannot get money and if one is born relatively good looking then there is nothing that we are making ourselves. So Krishna says that those who have done spiritual practices they will be born as yogis, or born in a rich family. So why should we not give the credit to Krishna? There was this lady, the daughter of Medhavi rishi, he died without getting her married. He was a friend of Durvasa muni. Durvasa muni asked her is there anything I can do? He told her she should do the Purushottam month. She became very offensive. She said, that is known as the Mala masa, that is the unlucky month. How dare you give me such a wrong instruction? Normally no one accuses Durvasa muni because he is known to give curses easily. But he thought she has already offended Purushottam month, so I don’t need to give her a curse, she is already cursed and Medhavi is my friend, so I will leave it at that and he left. And then all her beauty was lost and she became ugly and she did tapasya to please Lord Shiva. Finally, Lord Shiva appeared to her and asked her what do you want? I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband, I WANT A HUSBAND! He said one is enough but since you said five times you will get five husbands. She became Draupadi and she married five husbands, the Pandavas. But because of her good fortune, being the daughter of a rishi she became a devotee of Krishna and she performed the Purushottam month! So we should give credit to Krishna if we have anything good.

Question: Why mind is not getting fixed in sadhana bhakti? I have love for Krishna and the holy name but I don’t want to do it in a systematic way.

Guru maharaj: If you love Krishna and the holy name you should chant the way He wants you to chant. He said we should chant a fixed number of times and we should avoid the ten offences. So this is the stage called anartha nivritti, where we don’t want to do things the way we are supposed to. You should initially force yourself, very soon it will become a new habit.

Question: Does Sachi maata have the abhimaan that Mahaprabhu can take sanyas in Nitya Navadvip? Second question: Is Vishwarupa there a grihastha sanyasi? Which book should I read that tells me about Nitya Navadvip?

Guru maharaj: There is little information in different books about Nitya Navadvip. In the Caitanya Mangal something is mentioned. So I don’t see any such any evidence that Vishwarupa takes grihastha. Prabhupad did not like worshipping Lord Caitanya as a sanyasi. He said that we take sanyas to purify ourselves but Lord Caitanya does not need purification. He is always Super Pure! So that is the indication you can take from that.

Question: We hear that one is not supposed to worship a broken or damaged shaaligram shila? Is it so? I have a shaaligram composed of two halves and one a little damaged. Can I worship them?

Guru maharaj: This is a personal question and I don’t like to answer personal questions on the internet.  Show me the quote in the shaastra that says you worship broken shaaligrams or that cannot worship broken shaaligrams.